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| Europe |
| Turkish Moslems Apply Zoning Laws Only to Christian Churches |
| 2004-06-18 |
| From Compass Direct Zoning status recognizing the newly built Diyarbakir Evangelical Church as an official place of worship has been rejected by a local committee of the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Pastor Ahmet Guvener was informed verbally by a Diyarbakir official in southeast Turkey last month that although the committee wanted to resolve the controversy surrounding his new Protestant church, they were âbound to uphold the lawâ regulating all places of worship. ... According to the Committee for the Preservation of Culture and Historical Sites in Diyarbakir, Turkish law requires that every place of worship be situated on at least 2,500 square meters of property. Since the debated Protestant church property is only 116 square meters, the committee denied the churchâs request filed last December to re-zone the building as a legal place of worship. With 175 mosques open for worship within the Diyarbakir city limits, only the Ulu Camii (Grand Mosque) meets this 2,500 square-meters requirement. .... âI have looked through all the laws, and I can find no record of any statute requiring 2,500 square meters of property,â Guvenerâs lawyer Kadir Pekdemir told Compass today. ... A large percentage of Turkeyâs mosques have been constructed without obtaining building or zoning permits, both technically required by law. But some 45 small Protestant congregations who have rented or purchased places of worship over the past decade have struggled for years against authoritative attempts to shut them down on legal grounds. .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #1 Quelle surprise. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-06-18 11:50:36 PM |